Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1853 - 1872)(about) |
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Thursday 5 August 1880
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1 correction by jhempenstall - Show corrections
OUR COLOURED SUPPLEMENT.
Ned Kelly attacking the Police.
ONE of the strangest incidents connected with the ex- termination of the Kelly gang was the fight and the cap- ture of the ringleader, as shown in our Supplement. When Jones's Hotel was attacked by the police, Edward
Kelly seems to have escaped from it, and taken to the bush before daylight. This discovery was first made by Senior-constable Kelly finding a revolving rifle covered
with blood about 100 yards from the hotel. Kelly himself soon after this discovery made his presence known by fir- ing at the police in the most open manner with- out taking the precau- tion to shelter himself from the shots of the
police by getting under
cover of the trees and logs. Bullets that were evidently well aimed,
took no effect on him. The scene is well des-
cribed by Guard Dow- sett, whose narrative is
as follows : — " When
it was daylight I all at once saw a very strange figure at our back, about 150 yards away. I said, 'My God, who is that ?' Senior-constable Kelly,
or, some one else, chal- lenged him twice, and he replied by firing several shots in quick succession. He then steadily came on, as if it was his intention to go
to the hotel. He next scattered for cover, and I made towards him. Ned Kelly (for it was he) fired a number of shots all round him, and then he sat down by the side of a tree. I think he was then
reloading. When he was in that position I called to Senior-constable Kelly, ' Can't you hit him now?' Senior-constable Kelly fired, and I said, 'You have hit the tree beside him.' Senior-constable Kelly then fired again. The only portion of Ned Kelly then ex- posed was his hand. I saw that Senior-constable Kelly had hit him on the hand, and I told him so. Ned Kelly
rose from the tree and walked towards me. When he
was within 12 or 15 yards off me I fired five or six charges straight at him. I heard the bullets scud off him, and
he still continued walking. I then cried out to the others, 'This man must be the devil.' When I said so he struck his helmet with the butt of his revolver, caus- ing it to ring, and at the same time he said, 'You— dogs, you can't shoot me.' I called out, 'He must be mad ; he is ringing a bell to let us know where he is.' When he struck his helmet it made a ringing noise. Ned Kelly then came to the fork of the lying tree. I was standing behind the trunk, I said to him, 'You had better surrender ; throw up your hands.' He replied, 'Never while I have a shot left.' Sergeant Steele
THE KELLY TRAGEDY. — BURNING OF JONES' HOTEL.
guessed it was armour that made Kelly so demoniacally bullet-proof, and fired at the outlaw's legs. This brought him down, the very weight of his armour—97lb. —making his fall the heavier, and preventing his resist- ing effectually when down, and to cry out in rage and mortification, 'I'm done, I'm done.' " Kelly fired his
last shot at Steele after the two men closed with each
other, but the bullet whistled harmlessly in the air, and the ringleader of the brutal gang came to the end of his wicked and but too prolonged career.